Hearthstone is a much more agile game now than it has been in the past. This year alone we’ve seen a regular cadence of changes to the core game – nerfs, buffs, cards going to the Hall of Fame, as well as the introduction of a brand new esports program and brand new format for competitive play – Specialist. And right from the get-go, the Hearthstone esports team said that if Specialist didn’t pan out the way they hoped, they’d look at changing it. And that’s exactly what has happened – the team recently announced that Grandmasters season 2 would move away from Specialist and use a tweaked version of Conquest that introduced the ability for players to “shield” one of their four decks to prevent it being banned.
Source: IGN.com Why Hearthstone Esports is Saying Goodbye to the Specialist Format Already